Anthony G. Thomson

Anthony G. Thomson

(BA, BEd, MA (Dalhousie) PhD (Cambridge)

Professor Emeritus, Acadia University

Curriculum Vitae

Publications and Unpublished Research Reports, Monographs, and Papers

CONTENTS

Social Theory and the History of Ideas

Public Sector Unionism in Canada to 1939

Marxism

Ideology and the Canadian Penitentiary System

Unionism and the Public Sector in Nova Scotia

History of the Penitentiary in the Maritimes

Community Policing: Small Town and Rural Policing in Nova Scotia

Restorative Justice in Rural Nova Scotia

Other Writing

Social Theory and the History of Ideas

Interest in social theory began as a graduate student. One of the principal debates of the time was the place of white-collar workers in Marxist class analysis and the conditions under which class consciousness developed. In 1983, I prepared a number of commentaries on theories of the middle class, white-collar unionism, and state employment. While teaching a graduate seminar in intellectual history at Beijing Foreign Studies University in 1995-96, in the absence of suitable readings, I began work on a manuscript on the foundations of social theory from Aquinas to about World War One (2006). Oxford published a second edition in 2010. A companion manuscript on critical, modern social thought appeared in 2016. In addition, chapters summarizing sociological theory (both classical and modern) have appeared in two editions of two related introductory sociology texts.

2016 Modern Social Thought: An Introduction. Don Mills ON: Oxford University Press.

2016 Brue Arai and Anthony Thomson, Sociological Theory and Research Methods, in Lorne Tepperman and Patrizia Albanese (eds.) Principles of Sociology, (Fourth Edition) Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press. (Forthcoming)

-----2013 Sociological Theory and Research Methods, in Lorne Tepperman, Patrizia Albanese, and Jim Curtis (eds.) Principles of Sociology: Canadian Perspectives (Third Edition). Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, pp. 9-27.

2015 Sociological Theory, in Lorne Tepperman and Patrizia Albanese (eds.) Sociology: A Canadian Introduction, (Fourth Edition) Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press: 10-33.

-----2012 Sociological Theory, in Lorne Tepperman, Patrizia Albanese, and James Curtis (eds.) Sociology: A Canadian Introduction, (Third Edition) Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, pp. 11-31.

2010 The Making of Social Theory: Order, Reason, and Desire. (Second Edition). Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.

-----2006 The Making of Social Theory: Order, Reason, and Desire. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.

2003 Erich Fromm, Karl Polanyi, and Collaborative Circles. Presented as Discussant or the session on Problems of Intellectual Biography, Annual Meeting of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association (CSAA), Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S., 3 June. Text

1998 Review of Stuart Henry and Dragan Milovanovic, Constitutive Criminology: Beyond Postmodernism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996. In Canadian Journal of Sociology, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Winter): 109-113.

1997 Post-Modernism and Social Justice. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Socialist Studies, St. Johns, Newfoundland, 7 June. Text

1995 Two Models of European Thought: Enlightenment Modernism and Romantic Subjectivism. Presentation for the Intellectual History Department, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 27 April 1995. Text

1987 Review of: Martin Oppenheimer, White Collar Politics, New York NY: Monthly Review Press, 1985. In Canadian Journal of Sociology, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Fall): 264 267.

1984 Review of: J. Kocka, White Collar Workers in America, 1890 1940: A Social Political History in International Perspective. London UK: Sage Studies in Twentieth Century History, Vol. 10, 1980, 403pp, in Labour/Le Travail, XIII, (Spring): 243 246.

1983 Class, Occupation, and Unionism: The New Middle Class and State Employment. Unpublished papers. Index

1982 Woman of Clay: Gabors Angi Vera, Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory, VI, 3 (Fall): 155-161.

1978 The division between mental and manual labour and the middle class in the advanced societies. Presented for the Social and Political Sciences Committee, University of Cambridge, April.

1975 Review of Karl Polyani, The Great Transformation. Unpublished paper. Text

1975 The Development of Class in Canada in the Twentieth Century: A Critique. Unpublished paper. Text

1975 The Ideological Function of Early Academic American Sociology. Unpublished paper. Text

1974 On Class Consciousness. Unpublished paper. Text

Public Sector Unionism in Canada to 1939

My research in 1976 and 1977, on early 20th century federal government employee unionism, including the 1918 and 1924 strikes in the Canadian Post Office, resulted in the following:

1977 The large and generous view: The debate on labour affiliation in the Canadian Civil Service, 1918-1928, Labour/Le Travailleur, II: 108-136.

-----1977 Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Committee on Socialist Studies, Fredericton, N. B., June.

1977 Government Employee Unionism and the Ideology of Public Service in Canada, 1911-1939. M.A. Thesis, Dalhousie University, May. Index

-----Trade Unionism in the Canadian Post Office, 1911-1939. Excerpts from M.A. Thesis. Text

Marxism

Drawn into left politics in the late 1960s and 1970s, I have maintained a long-term interest in Marxist analysis and the fate of Marxism over the last century and have written on some aspects of Marxist theory and politics. Most recently I have collaborated on a book on revolutionary politics since Marx.

2016 Herb Gamberg, Tony Thomson, and Ma Zhanbin, Marxism after Marx: Revolutionary Politics and Prospects. Vancouver: Inkflight.

----- Draft Notes on Stalin. Text

----- Preface Draft: On David McLellan, Marxism after Marx: An Introduction. Text

2016 Review of Samir Amin, Russia and the Long Transition from Capitalism to Socialism (New York NY: Monthly Review Press, 2016). Text

2012 Herb Gamberg and Tony Thomson, A Wind Blows from the East (Coast): The 1970s New Communist Movement in Halifax. A Public Interview. The Platypus Affiliated Society, 1 March. Text

2011 Engels and the Scientific Status of Marxism. Presentation for the Roundtable on the Scientific Status of Marxism, Social and Political Thought Graduate Colloquium, Acadia University, 18 November. Text

1988 A. Thomson and H. Gamberg, Socialist Transition in China: Some Conceptual Issues. Presented at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the AASA, Halifax, N.S., 12 March. Text

1983 Social Democracy and Reformism. Text

1983 R. Crawley and A. Thomson, Maritime Marxism Revisited, Canadian Dimension, XVII, 2 (May): 39-40.

1983 Marxism in Relation to Everyday Life. Presented for the Symposium on Marxism, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, 24 November. Text

1982 Review of: J. Fox and W. Johnston, Understanding Capital: A Guide to Volume One. Toronto ON: Progress Publishers, 1978, 111 pp.; F. Cunningham, Understanding Marxism: A Canadian Introduction. Toronto ON: Progress Publishers, 1978, 168pp. In Labour/Le Travailleur, X, (Autumn): 290 292

1982 The Cultural Revolution in China: An Interpretation. Colloquium presented for the Department of Sociology, Acadia University, 22 October. Text

1981 Review of: Patricia Connelly, Last Hired First Fired: Women and the Canadian Work Force. Toronto ON: Womens Press, 1978, 122pp. In Canadian Journal of Sociology, VI, 4 (Fall): 531 534.

1978 Social Skill or Private Property: Art and the Wuhan Acrobatics Troupe, Canada China, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Summer): 12-15.

1977 Hard Times in the Maritimes, Next Year Country, Vol 4, No. 3 (April-May): 10-11.

1975 Louis Althussers Centrism, Unpublished Paper. Text

1975 Is Marxism Distinct from Bourgeois Social Science? Unpublished paper. Text

1970 Art: An Hegelian Approach. Unpublished Paper. Text

Ideology and the Canadian Penitentiary System

In 1977 and 1978, I collaborated on a research project funded by the Non-Medical Use of Drugs Directorate (Canada). The research focused on the Canadian penitentiary

system and particularly on the development of the rehabilitative ideology in Atlantic Canada in the latter half of the twentieth century.

1984 That middle class space in the midst of a prison: An analysis of an innovative correctional programme. Presentation for the Department of Sociology, Saint Marys University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 17 February.

1984 H. Gamberg and A. Thomson, The Illusion of Prison Reform: Corrections in Canada. New York NY: Peter Lang.

1978 H. Gamberg, A. Thomson, and O. Scibior. The Process of Ideological Change in Corrections: Some Nova Scotian Cases. Report prepared for Health and Welfare, Canada, Non-Medical Use of Drugs Directorate, January 1978. Text

1976 H. Gamberg, O. Scibior, and A. Thomson, Con Act: An Evaluation. Report prepared for Health and Welfare Canada, Non-Medical Use of Drugs Directorate.

Unionism and the Public Sector in Nova Scotia.

Between 1978 and 1987, I researched aspects of the labour movement in Nova Scotia, most intensively the history of civil service unionism, in the context of theoretical investigations into the middle class and state employment. A case study of hospital workers in Nova Scotia (prepared as a PhD dissertation) tested the connection between occupational position and trade union consciousness. After more than a decade of unrelated research on the justice system, with Mike Earle and with assistance from Jason Doherty, we developed a manuscript summarizing Nova Scotia labour history and integrating an anthology of articles from New Maritimes as part of a history of the labour movement in Nova Scotia. The most recent project considered the question of union renewal in the context of changes in the economy of the Atlantic region.

2005 State Employment and Trade Unionism in Nova Scotia: Signs of Renewal? In J. Sacouman and H. Veltmeyer (eds.), From the net to the Net: Atlantic Canada and the Global Economy. Toronto ON: Garamond Press: 137-168.

-----2001 Presented at the C.C.P.A.-N.S. Conference on Underdevelopment in Atlantic Canada: Renewing the Debate, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 27 October.

1999 Mike Earle and Tony Thomson, Nova Scotia Labour History: New Maritimes Perspectives. Tony Thomson and Jason Doherty (eds.). Unpublished Monograph / Anthology.

1992 Andrew Anningson, et al. Organizing Michelin: 1971-1989. A. Thomson (ed.). Unpublished monograph. Text

1991 Review of: Wallace Clement and Glen Williams, The New Canadian Political Economy. Kingston ON: McGill Queens University Press, 1989, in Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, Vol. 28, No. 4 (November): 547-550

1990 From Civil Servants to Government Employees: The NSGEA, 1967-1973. In M. Earle (ed.) Workers and the State in Twentieth Century Nova Scotia. Halifax: Gorsebrook Research Institute/Acadiensis Press NS: 217-240.

1987 Review of: Warren Magnusson, William K. Carroll, Charles Doyle, Monika Langer and R.B.J. Walker (Eds.) The New Reality: The Politics of Restraint in British Columbia. Vancouver BC: New Star Books, 1984; Warren Magnusson, R.B.J. Walker, Charles Doyle and John DeMarco (Eds.) After Bennett: A New Politics for British Columbia. Vancouver BC: New Star Books, 1986, in Socialist Studies Bulletin, Number 9 (Summer): 7 10.

1986 M. Earle and A. Thomson, The Digby School Bus Drivers Strike. Paper: Regional Centre for the Study of Contemporary Social Issues, Department of Sociology, Acadia University. Text

1986 The Common Front Hospital Strike, 1981. Strikes in Nova Scotia 1970-1985, C. H. J. Gilson (Ed.) Hantsport NS: Lancelot Press: 93-113.

1984 Nova Scotia Labour in the 1980s: Response to the Crisis. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA), Guelph, Ontario, 12 June 1984. Text

1983 Social Stratification and Trade Unionism in the Public Sector: A Study of Hospital Workers in Nova Scotia. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Cambridge.

1983 Trade union consciousness among white-collar women: Hospital workers in Nova Scotia. Presented at the 18th Annual Meeting of the Atlantic Association of Sociologists and Anthropologists (AASA), Halifax, Nova Scotia, 12 March 1983. Text

1983 Nova Scotia Civil Service Association, 1956-1967, Acadiensis, XII, 2 (Spring): 81-105.

-----2000 [Republished in] Laurel Sefton MacDowell and Ian Radforth (eds.) Canadian Working Class History: Selected Readings. Second Edition. Toronto ON: Canadian Scholars Press: 641-662.

-----1995 [Republished in] Greg Kealey and David Frank (eds.) Labour and Working-Class History in Atlantic Canada: A Reader. St. Johns NL: I.S.E.R: 358-382.

1983 State Employment and Public Sector Militancy in Canada. Presented at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University, Ottawa, 18 May 1983. Text

1983 The state, public employment and the issue of legitimacy in Canada. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association (CSAA), Vancouver, British Columbia, June. Text

1982 The problem or promise of public service unionism: Political implications. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the CPSA, Ottawa, Ontario, 8 June 1982). Conference Proceedings, Section J: Political Economy, Microfiche No. 25. Text

1982 Nova Scotia Labours Fight-Back Position: Hot Debate at the NSFL Convention in Halifax, New Maritimes, Vol. 1, No. 3, November 1982: 8-9. Text

1981 Trade Union Consciousness in the Public Sector: A Preliminary Analysis. Research Report prepared for the Executive Director, N. S. Government Employees Union and the Director of Finance and Personnel, Victoria General Hospital, December.

1979 Swept away: The dust settles on the Dalhousie cleaners strike, This Magazine, XIII, 3 (July-August): 17-21.

1979 The History: A Determined Union vs. an Anti-Labour Employer, Growing Stronger, Fighting Back: N. S. Labour on the March. Halifax: C.U.P.E./N.S.F.L., December: 2-3.

History of the Penitentiary in the Maritimes.

A long-term, still unfinished research project on the history of penitentiary development in the Maritimes began initially in 1986, and continued in 1995 with the help of grants from the SSHRC and sporadically since then. I have accumulated considerable archival material on jails and penitentiaries in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (prior to Dorchester Penitentiary) as well as some information on PEI and Newfoundland. Some preliminary observations on the Nova Scotia Penitentiary were presented in 1986. Otherwise, the writing is at an early draft or extended note stage. The draft information below on PEI and Newfoundland is listed below for interest. This topic is a work in progress.

1986 The development of corrections in Nova Scotia: 1749-1860. Presented at the 21st Annual Conference of the CSAA, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 7 June. Text.

-----Early Gaols on Prince Edward Island. Text

-----Early Gaols and Prisons in Newfoundland. Text

Community Policing: Small Town and Rural Policing in Nova Scotia.

In 1987, beginning in a sabbatical year, I began collaboration on a long-term co-operative study of Community-Based Policing (CBP). The study, through the Atlantic Institute of Criminology (AIC) at Dalhousie University, included researchers from Dalhousie and UNB-Saint John, and was financed by grants from the Donner Canadian Foundation, the Law Society of Nova Scotia, and the Solicitor-General, Canada. My research focus was small town and RCMP policing in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. The study included a public survey of rural victimization and attitudes to policing as well as an ethnographic study of small town and R.C.M.P. policing. I undertook this research intensively until 1992 and have continued sporadically to research policing, including supervising an MA students research on CBP in Nova Scotia and Alberta (2001), analyzing UCR data from the Canadian Centre of Justice Statistics for the separate Valley jurisdictions, as well as data on perceptions of crime and policing in Kings County, collected by the General Progress Index. This work has resulting in the following monographs, papers, and an unpublished AIC manuscript:

2013 A. Thomson and D. Clairmont, Community Policing in Small Town and Rural Nova Scotia: The Annapolis Valley, pp. 91-98 in Mahesh Nalla and Graeme Newman (eds.) Community Policing in Indigenous Communities. Boca Raton FL: CRC Press.

2003 A. Thomson, D. Clairmont, and L. Clairmont, Policing the Valley: Small Town and Rural Policing in Nova Scotia. Dalhousie University: Atlantic Institute of Criminology, Occasional Paper Series, 328pp. Index

2003 Perceptions of Victimization and Attitudes towards the Criminal Justice System, Kings County, Nova Scotia. Presented at the Community Dialogue, G.P.I. Kings County Society, 5 June. Text

1997 A. Thomson and M. Mander, Perspectives on Crime and Policing in Kentville, N.S., 1997: A Survey of Residents and Business Operators. Prepared for the Kentville Police Service, 2 May. Text

1996 D. Clairmont and A. Thomson, Does Small Town Policing Need Community-Based Policing? A Question of Identity or a Strategic Symbolization? Presented for the 31st Annual Meeting of the CSAA, Brock University, St. Catherines, Ont., 4 June.

-----1996 D. Clairmont and A. Thomson, Small Town, Professional, and Community-Based Policing: Reformative and Strategic Rhetoric. Presented at the annual meeting of the American Criminology Society, Chicago, Ill., 22 November. Text

1995 The Talk: Police, the Public and the Media. In Chris McCormick, Constructing Danger: The Mis/representation of Crime in the News. Halifax NS: Fernwood: 161-165).

-----1991 Presented as The Police, the Public and the Mass Media, Conference on Crime, Social Problems and Moral Panics: How the Media Deals with Social Issues. Dalhousie University, 10 May.

-----2010 [Republished in] Chris McCormick, Constructing Danger: Emotions and the Mis/representation of Crime in the News (Second Edition). Halifax NS: Fernwood: 167-169.

1994 Middleton Police Department: Structure and Organization. Dalhousie University, Halifax: Atlantic Institute of Criminology (AIC), Occasional Paper Series. Text

1992 Women in Policing: An Occupational Minority. Presented for the 27th Annual Meeting of the AASA, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, N. S., 14 March.

1992 A. Thomson and L. Clairmont, R.C.M.P. Rural Policing: New Minas Detachment. Dalhousie University, Halifax: AIC, Occasional Paper Series. Text

1991 Police and Community: Small Town and Rural Policing Styles in the Annapolis Valley. Prepared as a Chapter for the Final Report to the Donner Foundation, Police and Community: Policing Styles and Community Linkages in Canada, September. Dalhousie University: Atlantic Institute of Criminology, Occasional Paper Series. Text

1990 A. Thomson and L. Clairmont, Berwick Police Service: Structure and Organization. Dalhousie University, Halifax: AIC, Occasional Paper Series. Text

1990 L. Clairmont and A. Thomson, Kentville Police Service: Structure and Organization. Dalhousie University, Halifax: AIC, Occasional Paper Series. Text

1989 Review of Kevin Carriere and Richard Ericson, Crime Stoppers: A Study in the Organization of Community Policing. Toronto ON: Centre of Criminology, University of Toronto. In Journal of Human Justice, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Autumn): 116 118.

1989 Review of: Brian D. MacLean (ed.), The Political Economy of Crime: Readings for a Critical Criminology. Scarborough ON: Prentice Hall, 1986, 383pp. In Canadian Journal of Sociology, Vol. 14 No. 1 (Winter).

1988 Review of: Dermot Walsh, Heavy Business: Commercial Burglary and Robbery, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988, 188pp. In Deviant Behavior, Vol. 9, No. 1: 105-107.

Restorative Justice in Rural Nova Scotia

In 1998, the Department of Justice in Nova Scotia initiated a province-wide Restorative Justice programme. In 1999, I began collaborating with Donald Clairmont (Dalhousie University) on an evaluation of this initiative, interviewing stake-holders to elicit their concerns about the evaluation of the initiative and potential issues they identified in its implementation. We conducted research on restorative justice in rural Nova Scotia (Kings and Cumberland counties) as part of the provincial study, during the implementation phase and the first two years of operation of the programme. In 2007, I became a collaborator on an SSHRC-CURA project originating at the Dalhousie Schulich School of Law studying the restorative justice programme in Nova Scotia. My focus was on rural/urban differences.